In just its third year of existence and with no true seniors on the roster, Cleveland State lacrosse posted a winning season during the 2019 campaign.
After a 1-4 start, the Vikings won seven of their final 10 games. CSU doubled its win total from the previous season despite facing six teams among the top 25 in the NCAA's RPI.
Cleveland State secured the winning season with an 11-9 victory over Detroit Mercy in the season finale. The Vikings racked up a new program best 49 ground balls in the contest while also holding the Titans to a 16-for-26 mark on clearing attempts.
CSU led all of Division I in riding (or opponent clearing percentage) in 2019 as opponents converted only 70.7 percent of their attempted clears against the Vikings.
Riding was one of eight team statistical categories in which the Vikings finished among the top 25 nationally. The others were faceoff winning percentage (.631), in which the Vikings were sixth nationally, man-down defense (.698), assists per game (7.53), scoring defense (10.27), caused turnovers per game (8.93), clearing percentage (.853) and points per game (19.00). The Vikings finished among the top half of Division I in 14 of the 16 team stat categories tracked by the NCAA.